Jean-Michel Jarre - Équinoxe (1978)

German import

One morning at some point during my college years (I'm going to guess around 1985 or '86), other marching band members and I were riding charter buses somewhere in northeast Texas, most likely headed for a recruiting performance of some sort. It seemed quite early in the morning, although my definition of "early" is admittedly somewhat different now than it was when I was 20 years old. Regardless, we were all tired, groggy, probably hungover, and in no mood to ride a bus into the morning light. I glanced across the aisle and asked my buddy Tom what tape he had in his Walkman. He just grinned and held up his cassette case of this album. I'll never forget the cover art by French graphic artist Michel Granger:

That cartoon guy looking at me through binoculars was freaky enough at that time of day, but then I gave the thing a listen and thought I definitely needed a cup or two of coffee before trying all these repetitive synth washes. Certainly not what you would expect a young adult to be listening to at 6 AM on a bus ride. It's hypnotic music that lies somewhere between that of Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, and Vangelis as played by someone who grew up playing a lot of Debussy piano works. It's good for what it is and I'm sure was groundbreaking at the time, but definitely removed from the disco music and soft rock I was consuming in 1978. I now find it intriguing more than interesting, but it's still hypnotizing.

We lost Tom last spring and a few months after attending his funeral I saw this disc in a used CD bin and didn't hesitate to pick it up even though I hadn't heard any of this music since that bus ride. Tom was a great guy and this world could use more people like him. He is missed but remembered fondly. I'll think of him every time I see this CD on my shelves and that alone is easily worth the price of the disc.

Press of the time:

• Record Mirror (★★): "As far as I was concerned the effect was one of sleep inducement"
• Billboard: "there's plenty of compelling music here"
• CashBox: "adventurous rock fans will find this LP fascinating"
• Record World: "another impressive pastiche of synthesizers"
  
• Stereo Review: "I found the whole recital just too twitchy to be entertaining"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #126
• CashBox: #89

Tracks: There's 8 tracks here - Equinoxe Part 1, Equinoxe Part 2, and so on, reportedly designed and sequenced to represent a day in the life of a person, from waking up in the morning to sleeping at night. And it does indeed play like a 39-minute 8-part suite that probably shouldn't be split or resequenced. However, parts 4 & 5 were each released as single in Europe so what do I know.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: See above.